It’s the taste of hand-squeezed lime and fresh cilantro that brings Mary O’Neill’s friends and family back to the bowl time and again for more salsa, and now the homemade specialty is available to the whole community.
Fresh on the shelves at a growing list of local retailers, Taleo Foods Gourmet Salsa comes in mild, medium or hot, each batch hand-prepared and hand-delivered by a local woman with a flair for preparing the foods people love to eat.
Although she doesn’t have a formal culinary arts background, O’Neill spent the last five years developing new recipes and whipping up dish after dish for Rudy’s Quality Market in downtown Clarkston.
Those who know her who say she has a natural talent’and a passion’for the food business.
‘We’ve hired a lot of chefs with credentials and diplomas and all those fancy titles,? said Robert Esshaki, who owns both Rudy’s and Market Basket in Franklin. ‘But Mary is probably the best cook I’ve ever met. Everything she makes is the best.?
But after five years at Rudy’s, O’Neill, who lives in Independence Township with her husband and family, realized it was time to change course’time to chase the dream of starting her own business.
So in November, just before Thanksgiving, Taleo Foods Gourmet Salsa arrived in local stores.
The final decision to leave Rudy’s and strike out on her own, O’Neill said, came after tragedy struck close to home.
‘We had some really good friends who were killed in a car accident,? she said. ‘They had four kids, I have four kids. It was a very emotional time. I’m 50, and I want to look back on my life and say I did something for myself and my family. I want to say I followed my dream.??
O’Neill fell in love with cooking when she was 14 and took a job keeping the books in an Ann Arbor church where her uncle was pastor.
‘Part of my job was to cook for the priests,? she said. ‘After Mass they’d come in and tell me what they wanted for breakfast and I’d make it for them.?
She turned to a career in bookkeeping, but later found herself drawn back to the passion for cooking that began to blossom when she was young.
Because of her husband Edward’s job, O’Neill and her family spent five years in Singapore during the 90s, where her passion for cooking intensified.
‘I took cooking classes and I had a Filipino maid who taught me all theses wonderful, wonderful dishes,? she said, explaining that she learned to create such dishes as Thai beef salad, different Cole slaws and several varieties of the region’s popular spicy noodle dishes. ‘I just kind of recreated that here.?
Now that she’s out on her own, O’Neill is busy whipping up batch after batch of her own fresh salsa, and actively looking for new shops and stores who are willing to give it a try.
Once that happens, anything’s possible.
‘My five year goal is to open up as a chip and dip store, where people could come in and get specialty chips and crackers, my homemade spreads, different dips, peach salsa, maybe guacamole,? she said. ‘I’d like to take advantage of the variety of seasonal ingredients that are available.?
Taleo is an acronym for O’Neill’s children: Tina, Amy, Laura, and Edward O’Neill, and comes in varieties of hot, medium and mild. The salsa is available for a suggested retail price of $4.99 at:
Pine Knob Wine Shoppe, 5726 Maybee Road
Dixie Market, 8774 Dixie Hwy
Clintonville Market, 4494 Clintonville Road, Waterford
Rudy’s Quality Market, 9 S. Main
Market Basket, 32654 Franklin Road Franklin, Franklin
For more information, or to contact Mary O’Neill, visit www.taleofoods.com.